Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Veterinarians seek answers to canine, human cancers

By Susan Collins-Smith
MSU Ag Communications
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Aspirin can knock out minor aches and pains, but what if it also could play a role in cancer prevention?
That is the question a group of veterinarians at Mississippi State University are trying to answer. Drs. Kari Lunsford and Camilo Bulla are two members of the team who have spent about five years trying to understand the link between blood platelets and the spread of certain types of cancer. Their research focuses on canine cancer patients at the MSU Animal Health Center.
“Doctors have prescribed low-dose aspirin for years as a blood thinner. The way it thins the blood is by stopping some of the actions of blood platelets,” said Lunsford, an associate professor of small animal internal medicine at the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine. “People who have been on this therapy for many years have a lower incidence of some types of cancers.  read more...